Cheap Mambo Italiano (DVD) (Luke Kirby, Ginette Reno, Paul Sorvino, Peter Miller (XII)) (Émile Gaudreault) Price

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Customer Reviews of Mambo Italiano

All the right ingredients..........but the cake didn't rise
Sad. MAMBO ITALIANO had all the pre-release press and convinced some reviewers in the media that this little film was due to deliver all the grace and charm of the surprise Indie successes along the lines of MY BIG FAT GREEK WEDDING and REAL WOMEN HAVE CURVES. This was to the breakthrough movie that would make the 'surprise-the-public du jour topic' of gay life (so prevalent in the current televsion sitcoms and reality shows) become a family film of vast appeal. Despite some very good actors (Luke Kirby and Peter Miller as the Italian lovers overcoming the Italian family mores as portrayed by Paul Sorvino, Ginette Reno etc), this vision of American-Italian dysfunctional faimly life pulls all focus away from what could have been an insightful film about ethnic/familial constraints on same sex love. It is so coated with suffocating shlock that any ring of sensitivity is simply drowned in visual, trashy excess. There is merit to the story but it has been told many times before and much better, mainly in Italian or Spanish art films, that this little attempt falls very flat. Another example of what 'Hollywood mentality' can do to potentially touching tales.

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Heartwarming Comedy Italian Style
Mambo Italiano is first and foremost a comedy about the gay, Italian-(North)American experience. It's main premise centers around the all important Italian family dynamic making the family proud and being proud of the family even in times of conflict - which can be quite frequent. The characters of this comedy start as stereotypes but ultimately are very real people. The performances by the actors are uniformly strong. The film overall deals with very real, very serious issues of coming out gay in a straight, unaccepting environment. But the film is first a comedy that deals with these issues with outrageous humor. The movie sticks to task and remains tight. Unlike other recent hit indi ethnic dramas, Mambo does not rely on a "wedding device" to pull at your heart and draw you in. It entertains and touches by depict a real family dealing with real issues with great humor. Lastly the lush, technicolor set designs are enough reason to see this film, but it remains a must for any gay, Italian-North American or for anyone who loves being part of a family.

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an interesting topic
It's true that this is a silly "ethnic" comedy about immigrants and their assimilated offspring, to be watched just for fun. But I still found the topic interesting because it relates to my experience as a North American guy in his 20s in a long-term relationship (in Italy itself) with an Italian guy in his 20s and his very traditional family, whom I got to observe thoroughly. A few times I found the spaghetti-commercial-style stereotypes just too overblown, but a couple of moments I thought "YES, that's how it is!" - especially the hysterical reaction of the family, and the part about living at home until marriage, or (if you're gay) NEVER leaving home. Also the family's efforts to fix Nino and Angelo up with girls as a reaction to their coming out is a fairly common in Italy. Some Italian families actually keep their gay sons or daughters secluded in the home so that the disgrace won't "get out", but that's not as common today. But the 180 degree switch from hiding it to showing it off at the end seemed contrived, but it was the only way to make a happy ending out of what would have been a long, emotional ordeal for a real family. I liked that they kept it a light-hearted comedy instead of letting it deteriorate into sugary sentimentalism or self-important drama. If you have no connection to the subject matter though, it's not a particularly special film but it's not too slow-moving and makes decent light entertainment for an evening.